Parashat Shemot – Selected Highlights

Does assimilation cause persecution or does it prevent it? See how R. Chasdai Crescas answers this question in his analysis of the religious beliefs of the Children of Israel while in Egypt. Note how his views might be impacted by the religious persecutions in Spain in his day.
Moshe has been both praised and condemned for killing the Egyptian. Compare two artists' depictions of the episode to see how they understand both the backdrop of the story and Moshe's actions. To correlate the artists' renditions with the explanations of traditional commentators, see Was Moshe a Murderer?
Did Hashem harden Paroh's heart in order to punish him or to enable him to truly repent? Seforno takes the second option, emphasizing how Hashem gives second chances to Jew and non-Jew alike.
The story of the attempted killing at the lodging place in Shemot 4:24-26 is one of the most bizarre episodes in Tanakh. R. Elazar HaModai says it was all caused because Moshe promised one of his sons to "idolatry," while Ibn Kaspi claims that Moshe did not sin at all. For details, see Murder Mystery at the Malon.
The Reparations Debate - Many explain that the Egyptians gave gold and silver vessels to the Israelites prior to their leaving Egypt as compensation for years of enslavement. See R. Zalman Sorotzkin who draws a contemporary parallel to the debates which raged in Israel in the early 1950s over the propriety of requesting and accepting West German reparations.

Parashat Shemot/Highlights